The process of making and packaging of slab/stick-type gum products is time-consuming and involves significant manual handling. Slab/stick-type gums, such as Trident.RTM. gum produced by Warner Lambert, are typically processed in batch kettles, divided into chunks by hand, formed into a wide, flat continuous sheet by an extruder machine, and then passed through rolling, scoring, and cutting machines. The sheets of scored gum are maintained in cooled conditioning rooms before they are wrapped and packaged. The sheets of gum product are taken to a packaging machine where they are first divided into elongated strips and then into individual pieces of gum and subsequently wrapped and packaged.
Some chunk-style gum products, such as bubble gum products, are formed into a rope-like configuration and fed directly from an extruder into a packaging machine. The product is roll formed into a generally square cross-sectional configuration and divided into individual pieces by a cutting mechanism. The individual pieces are then wrapped and packaged. One process which forms ropes of gum is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,594.
Heretofore, it has not been possible to utilize a continuous processing and packaging system for slab/stick-type chewing gum products packaged on standard slab gum wrappers. This is due to the fact that standard packaging machines require precisely sized and conditioned gum pieces for wrapping.